Latest / Small Business Success with Fexingo: Local Companies, Main Street Stories, and Community Commerce / How a Local Ice Cream Shop Used a Flavor Vote to Double Sales
Transcript
- Lucas: So it's late June 2026, peak ice cream season, and I want to tell you about a shop in Portland that turned a gimmick into a real community engine. Luna: I'm ready. What's the scoop? Lucas: Nice. So the shop is called Scoop & Co., run by Jenna Kwan. She opened in 2019, barely survived the pandemic, and by 2022 she was looking for something to bring people back consistently. Not just a summer spike. Luna: Right, because ice cream is inherently seasonal. June through August is the money months. Lucas: Exactly. So Jenna launched what she calls the 'Flavor Vote.' Every month, she posts three candidate flavors on Instagram Stories — think honey lavender, matcha white chocolate, black sesame caramel. Customers vote for 48 hours. The winning flavor becomes the next month's featured scoop. Luna: And the losers? Do they just disappear? Lucas: Great question. Jenna turned them into 'runner-up specials' — limited batches sold only on weekends. That way, nobody feels like their vote didn't matter. Even the third-place flavor gets a small run. Luna: That is smart. It creates a sense of urgency. If you voted for black sesame caramel and it loses, you still get a chance to try it before it's gone. Lucas: Exactly. But here's the key: the vote itself became an event. She teasers the flavors a week ahead with chalkboard drawings in the shop and cryptic Instagram captions — 'Something nutty is coming.' People started guessing in the comments. Engagement went through the roof. Luna: Let's get to the numbers. What kind of engagement are we talking? Lucas: Jenna shared her numbers at a local business meetup. Before the Flavor Vote, her Instagram posts averaged about 200 likes and 15 comments. After six months of the vote, her vote posts averaged 1,200 likes and over 200 comments. That's a sixfold increase in engagement. Luna: And did that translate to foot traffic? Lucas: Yes. On vote days — the 48-hour window — she saw a 40 percent sales lift compared to the same day of the week in previous months. But the real win was the loyalty program. She tied voting to loyalty: you get double points if you vote and show your receipt that week. Loyalty sign-ups jumped 25 percent month over month. Luna: So it's not just about the vote, it's about the loop — anticipation, participation, reward, and then the limited runner-up batch creates a second chance to engage. Lucas: Exactly. And the flavors themselves became conversation starters. People would come in and say, 'I voted for the honey lavender, but I'll try the matcha white chocolate since it won.' It gave staff a natural talking point. Luna: I imagine there's a downside, though. More flavors mean more inventory complexity. You have to source ingredients for three candidates plus the runner-ups? Lucas: Jenna admitted that was the hardest part. She limits candidate flavors to ingredients she already stocks or can source locally. For example, she always has honey and lavender from a nearby farm, so honey lavender is a safe candidate. She avoids exotic ingredients that would require a special order. And the runner-up batches are small — maybe 10 percent of a typical batch size. Luna: That keeps waste low. And it makes the runner-up feel exclusive. Lucas: Right. The scarcity actually adds value. People would come specifically for the runner-up because they knew it was a limited run. Luna: So what's the lesson for other Main Street businesses? Not everyone sells ice cream. Lucas: The principle is universal: let your customers co-create. It doesn't have to be a flavor vote. A bookstore could let customers vote on the next author event or book club pick. A coffee shop could let customers name a new drink. The key is that the vote is real — the winning option actually happens, and the losing options get a smaller 'consolation' version. Luna: And it has to be simple. If the voting process takes more than two clicks, you lose people. Lucas: Exactly. Jenna used Instagram Stories polls — literally one tap. She also had a physical ballot box in the shop for customers who don't use Instagram. That caught the older demographic. Luna: Smart. So she covered both digital and physical. Lucas: And she made the results visible. She posts the vote tally on a chalkboard by the register. So customers see that their vote counted. That transparency builds trust. Luna: If today was actually useful to you — and I think this is a genuinely replicable idea — the way this show stays ad-free is listener support. You can buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small gesture that keeps these conversations going. Lucas: Yeah, we really appreciate that. And it directly funds research time for episodes like this. Luna: Alright, back to ice cream. So after a year of Flavor Votes, did Jenna see a lasting change? Lucas: She said her summer revenue in 2025 was up 60 percent from pre-vote summer 2022. But more importantly, her winter business — which used to drop by half — only dropped by 20 percent. The Flavor Vote gave people a reason to come in during the off-season. Luna: Because the vote is monthly, not seasonal. It creates a recurring reason to visit. Lucas: Exactly. And she started doing a 'Winter Warmers' series — flavors like spiced chai and peppermint bark — that were specifically designed for colder months. The vote kept engagement alive. Luna: I love that. One more question: did she ever have a flavor that bombed? A winner that customers didn't actually like? Lucas: She did. In March 2024, the winning flavor was a 'wasabi ginger' — customers voted for it as a joke, she thinks. She made a small batch, and it sold poorly. She pulled it after three days and replaced it with the runner-up: mango chili. She learned to set a minimum sales threshold. If a winning flavor sells below that threshold in the first week, she swaps it out and offers a free scoop to anyone who bought the dud. Luna: That's a great fail-safe. It shows she's listening even after the vote. Lucas: Right. The whole system is built on listening. And that's the real takeaway: the Flavor Vote isn't about choosing ice cream. It's about giving customers a voice, then acting on it in a way that feels honest and fun. Luna: So if you run a small business, ask yourself: what could your customers vote on tomorrow? Lucas: And if you try it, start small. One vote, one winner, one runner-up. See what happens. Luna: Alright, next week we're talking about a local bookstore that started a blind date with a book program and saw a 30 percent lift in fiction sales. Lucas: That sounds like a good one. See you then.